A Viewer’s Guide to Election Night

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There are many permutations of the U.S. presidential election — some messier than others. Joe Biden’s lead in national polls suggests he has a number of paths to victory. If states like Florida or Georgia break for him early on, then the Trump campaign could be in for a long night. The task for President Trump is to close those paths. If he can hold Florida and quickly add the likes of Arizona and North Carolina, then the signs could point to re-election. And then there is a third scenario. If fast-counting states are too close to call immediately and battlegrounds in the Midwest take a long time to tally votes, then a long wait for a final result — and bitter, lengthy legal challenges — could be on the cards. We speak to Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The Times, on the likely plotlines for election night. Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The New York Times, walks us through possible election night scenarios. In addition to our regular show on Election Day, The Daily is going LIVE tomorrow afternoon. Spend your Election Day with Michael Barbaro and Carolyn Ryan, deputy managing editor at The Times, as they call our correspondents for the latest on a history-making day. Tune in from 4 - 8 p.m. Eastern, only on nytimes.com/thedaily. Click here for more information. Background reading: The Trump and Biden campaigns are intensifying their efforts in Pennsylvania — an increasingly critical state.How long will counting take? We asked officials about their election results processes and about what share of the vote they expect to be finished by Wednesday. Americans are pushing through challenges like the pandemic and long lines to cast their ballot. The United States is on course to surpass 150 million votes for the first time.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Babaro. This is a Daily.
0:11.0	Today, how to understand the election results as they
0:16.5	rule in on Tuesday night. Alex Burns on three potential scenarios. It's Monday, November 2nd.
0:35.5	So Alex Burns, it is finally almost election day. It is the day before the election. It is
0:42.5	Arab election day. And so the first thing I want to do is congratulate you for your endurance,
0:50.5	especially when it comes to the daily. I think the term you're looking for is
0:55.3	Mazel Tauv. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. And a big
0:58.5	model to you, Michael. And to you as well. The reason we want to talk to you on the
1:05.5	eve of this election, as opposed to all the other times we have abused your time, is
1:11.5	that everybody is about to be inundated with data starting at 7 p.m. tomorrow night.
1:18.5	And we want to help people make sense of what those results are going to mean as they
1:24.5	come in. And so if we are successful in this conversation, Alex, I think what we will
1:28.5	have created is a bit of a user's guide for election night. If that makes sense. It does.
1:35.5	Okay. So guide us. If you would, how do you think about the way things will unfold tomorrow
1:42.5	night? All the various permutations on it? Well, the big disclaimer upfront is that these
1:49.5	are our expectations for how tomorrow night might unfold. We have done a lot of looking
1:55.5	at the ballot counting procedures at what different state authorities say they think they
2:00.5	are going to be doing tomorrow night. The campaigns have their own expectations for how this
2:04.9	might unfold. But above all of that is just the reality that we've never had an election
2:10.5	like this before. So it's possible that we will have these expectations. And they will be
2:15.7	totally shattered by what actually happens on election night as possible. The counting
2:19.7	could be much faster possible. It could be much slower. Right. But with that giant
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